Mansfield Park

Last night was the last new Jane Austen movie for me for a while. I think they are showing the old Pride and Prejudice in five parts for February and March before they show the new Sense and Sensibility. I was looking forward to this new adaptation of Mansfield Park. I was afraid that it was going to be too far off from the story when I saw pictures of the cast last week. Why have they got Fanny's hair down? Not just down, but with a modern, shaggy haircut. Well, when I watched it last night, her hair didn't bother me like I expected it to. I think the logic behind it was that she was supposed to be a poor relation who didn't have the time or servants to style her hair in the ornate styles the other women wore. I liked the movie pretty well. My complaint with it was that it moved so fast. It seemed to dive headfirst into the story and leave the audience to figure out who everybody was and what was going on. They didn't change the story much, they just left a lot of things out. If I watch this on DVD, I might like it better, because I read somewhere that PBS is cutting out several minutes of the movies to fit their programming schedule. I thought they picked great actors to play Henry and Mary Crawford, but the way they portrayed Fanny's character was a little confusing to me. She was supposed to be so shy, quiet, and reserved. Why was she running all over the house chasing the dog and giggling then? But when she interacted with the other characters, she seemed more shy and quiet, so I didn't let it bother me too much. To sum it up, I think I'll watch this again when it comes out on DVD. it wasn't exactly perfect, but I liked it anyway. :)